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The  Church 


International  Peace 


A  Series  of  Papers  by  the  Trustees  of 
THE  CHURCH  PEACE  UNION 

IV 

Europe’s  War,  America’s 

Warning 

by 

Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland,  Ph.D. 


THE  CHURCH  PEACE  UNION 
70  Fifth  Avenue 

NEW  YORK 


The  Church  and  International  Peace 

A  uniform  series  of  papers  by  the  Trustees  of  The 
Church  Peace  Union,  treating  the  problems  of  war  and 
peace  from  the  point  of  view  of  religion,  and  especially 
emphasizing  the  message  the  Church  should  have  for  the 
world  in  this  time  of  war. 


ALREADY  PUBLISHED 

1.  The  Cause  of  the  War,  by  Rev.  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  D.D. 

2.  The  Midnight  Cry,  by  Rt.  Rev.  David  H.  Greer,  D.D. 

3.  Christ  or  Napoleon — Which?  by  Rev.  Peter  Ainslie,  D.D. 

4.  Europe’s  War,  America’s  Warning,  by  Rev.  Charles  S.  Mac- 

farland,  Ph.D. 


IN  PREPARATION 

1.  The  Way  to  Disarm,  by  Hamilton  Holt. 

2.  The  Breakdown  of  Civilization,  by  Rev.  William  Pierson  Mer¬ 

rill,  D.D. 

3.  After  the  War — What?  by  Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D. 

4.  Our  Groimds  of  Hope,  by  Rt.  Rev.  William  Lawrence,  D.D. 

5.  The  United  Church  and  the  Terms  of  Peace,  by  Rev.  Frederick 

Lynch,  D.D. 

6.  The  Church’s  Mission  as  to  War  and  Peace,  by  Rev.  Jimius  B. 

Remensnyder,  D.D. 

7.  Adequate  Armaments,  by  Prof.  William  I.  HuU. 


Europe’s  W  ar— America’s  W  arning 

By  Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland,  Ph.  D. 

Secretary  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America, 

Trustee  of  the  Church  Peace  Union,  Member  of  the  Con¬ 
tinuation  Committee  of  the  World  Alliance  of  the 
Churches  for  International  Friendship. 

“Two  men  went  up  into  the  temple  to  pray;  the  one  a  Pharisee, 
and  the  other  a  publican. 

“The  Pharisee  stood  and  prayed  thus  with  himself,  God,  I  thank 
thee  that  I  am  not  as  other  men  are,  extortioners,  unjust,  adulterers, 
or  even  this  publican. 

“I  fast  twice  in  the  week;  I  give  tithes  of  all  that  I  possess. 

“And  the  publican,  standing  afar  off,  would  not  lift  up  so  much 
as  his  eyes  unto  heaven,  but  smote  upon  his  breast,  saying,  God  be 
merciful  to  me  a  sinner. 

“I  tell  you,  this  man  went  down  to  his  house  justified  rather  than 
the  other;  for  every  one  that  exalteth  himself  shall  be  abased;  and 
he  that  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted.” 

One  of  the  great  beauties  of  nature  is  her  mingling  of 
things  unlike  each  other,  each  serving  the  other’s  needs.  The 
natural  v^orld  is  not  like  a  scientific  showcase  or  like  a 
library  of  well-ordered  books.  This  universal  order,  since  the 
stars  sang  their  morning  song  together,  has  been  the  blending 
of  a  multitude  of  things  which,  in  our  human  knowledge  of 
them,  we  have  set  apart. 

Nature  consists  thus  of  unity  in  diversity.  Her  divided 
and  subdivided  kingdoms  exist  only  in  the  thought  of  man. 
She  is  not  like  our  human  life,  marked  off  into  its  political 
states  with  their  boundaries  and  barriers.  Her  various 
systems  pervade  and  penetrate  each  other.  They  live  upon 
and  by  one  another. 

In  our  human  order  also,  when  we  live  its  freest  and 
most  natural  life,  we  do  not  gather  ourselves  together  so 
much  upon  the  basis  of  similarity  as  that  of  unlikeness.  The 
family  is  the  highest  type  of  our  mutual  life  and  it  is  a  bring- 


3 


ing  together  of  the  unlike  and  opposite.  The  gentle  woman 
and  the  strong  man,  the  little  child  and  the  great  father,  the 
brother  and  the  sister.  There  are  striking  likenesses  of 
feature  and  of  temperament,  but  these  are  no  more  marked 
than  the  elements  of  unlikeness. 

When,  however,  we  pass  out  from  this  natural  social 
order  of  God  into  the  realm  of  our  artificial  human  associa¬ 
tions,  we  find  that  this  divine  law  is  everywhere  perverted  and 
repressed.  In  God’s  order  it  is  the  unity  of  unlikeness.  Man’s 
disposition  is  to  bring  together  by  similarities.  The  one  com¬ 
pletes  the  defect  by  some  compensation  and  gives  a  real  and 
final  unity.  The  other  takes  one  small  portion,  multiplies  it 
by  itself  and  issues  in  a  system  of  inharmonious  exaggera¬ 
tions,  so  that  to  him  that  hath  much  more  is  given,  and  from 
him  that  hath  not  is  taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath. 

Thus  it  has  been  the  tendency  of  our  human  blindness 
and  error  to  unite  the  like  and  to  separate  the  unlike.  We 
have  largely  ordered  the  world,  not  in  complementary  groups, 
but  by  a  cold  analysis  into  classes,  so  that  each  man,  instead 
of  living  in  the  world,  lives  within  his  own  little  class.  Here 
he  finds  his  own  ways  of  doing  things  repeated ;  his  particular 
tastes  are  met,  the  limited  judgments  of  his  little  mind  are 
conformed  to,  and  his  words  stand  for  wisdom  among  those 
who  speak  like  him. 

Thus  our  human  society  has  been  largely  formed  after 
the  classification  of  a  schoolhouse  rather  than  like  the 
organism  of  a  family.  Test  this  by  the  population  of  the 
city  in  which  we  live,  by  its  rigid  segregation  of  race  and 
station.  Witness  it  in  our  commercial  life,  with  the  barons 
of  industry  about  the  hotel  table,  while  the  sons  of  toil  meet 
in  their  dingy  hall.  Apply  it  to  the  professions,  to  the  call¬ 
ing  of  the  ministry,  and  note  how  we  classify  men;  and  to 
our  churches,  in  which  we  often  say:  “Our  church  does  not 
have  that  class  of  people.” 

It  is  true  that  this  principle  is  not  altogether  bad.  It 
would  not  be  bad  at  all  if  it  were  not  carried  too  far.  Our 


4 


deep  mutual  sympathies  uplift  us  in  common  and  invigorate 
the  will  and  purpose.  The  trouble  is  that  in  proceeding  along 
the  lines  of  these  classifications  we  have  depreciated  the  finer 
graces  of  human  life  and  have  impaired  its  affections,  so 
that  everywhere  upon  the  face  of  its  sympathy  is  written  the 
commercial  title  “limited.’^ 

In  it  there  is  more  of  self-will  than  of  pity,  more  of  the 
law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  than  of  Jesus’  larger  law 
by  which  the  strong  are  to  sustain  the  weak. 

Our  tendency  has  gone  all  too  far  to  find  our  equals  and 
to  associate  with  them;  the  weak  with  the  weak,  the  strong 
with  the  strong,  rich  with  rich,  poor  with  poor,  the  cultured 
with  the  cultured,  the  uncultured  with  the  uncultured,  the 
wise  together  with  the  wise,  and  the  ignorant  with  the 
ignorant. 

We  not  only  do  this,  but  with  a  still  lower  aim  and  motive 
we  like  to  talk  with  those  who  think  as  we  do  and  who  applaud 
our  knowledge.  We  read  the  books  that  meet  our  tastes 
or  justify  our  opinions  and  confirm  our  ideas  and  conceptions. 
We  go  to  hear,  the  preachers  who  echo  our  own  notions  and 
the  tenor  of  whose  words  is  to  confirm  us  in  our  self-satisfac¬ 
tion.  We  resent  those  who  stand  over  in  contrast  to  us  and 
again  and  again  we  assume  the'  contemptuous  attitude  of 
faithless  Scribes,  ‘'These  people  that  know  not  the  law  which 
I  know  are  accursed.” 

Thus  we  fall  into  a  dwarfing  egoism.  We  become,  in 
our  self-satisfaction,  very  near  to  the  classic  man  who  talked 
to  himself,  as  he  said,  first  because  he  liked  to  talk  to  a 
sensible  man,  and  second  because  he  liked  to  hear  a  sensible 
man  talk.  Our  little  narrow  world  reflects  our  little  narrow 
self,  or  at  best  the  class  in  which  we  have  been  disposed. 

We  have  thus  destroyed  the  family  idea  of  nature  and 
have  substituted  for  it  a  well-ordered  set  of  classes  with  the 
poor  dullards  to  keep  misery  company,  while  the  brilliant 
shine  in  their  mutually  reflected  splendor  and  become, 
unknown  to  themselves,  a  society  for  mutual  admiration. 
The  result  is  that  life  has  fallen  largely  into  the  order  of  the 


5 


survival  of  the  fittest;  to  him  that  hath  is  given,  from  him 
that  hath  not  is  taken  away;  the  weak  become  weaker  and 
the  strong  stronger. 

The  great  commotion  in  the  social  order  of  our  day 
and  generation  is  the  effort  to  change  this  current  which,  in 
national  life,  takes  the  form  of  a  self-deceptive  patriotism, 
into  the  splendid  order  of  democracy.  In  Europe,  the  main 
division  is  by  nations;  in  America,  by  classes. 

Each  of  these  nations  is  fighting,  in  others,  the  very  sins 
which  it  has  itself  committed.  Each  is  fighting  now  a  foe 
without,  because  each  failed  to  fight  her  foe  within.  The 
seeds  of  this  sin  have  been  nurtured  many  years. 

More  than  one  nation  had  by  newspaper  and  by  its 
literature,  contemplated  this  holocaust,  sometimes  with 
criminal  levity.  Each  was  unwilling  it  should  come,  but  not 
enough  unwilling.  Even  now  it  is  talked  of  by  more  than 
one,  with  appalling  complacency,  as  a  more  or  less  permanent 
event. 

All  have,  in  varying  degree,  either  talked  or  acted  an 
imperialism,  and  each  has  constantly  increased  the  suspicions 
of  the  other.  Men  of  all  these  nations  had  helped  it  to  come 
by  perpetually  reminding  themselves  and  the  others  that  it 
was  “bound  to  come.”  The  national  snobs  were  not  of  one 
nation  alone.  And  in  the  final  judgment,  while  the  guilt  for 
certain  immediate  acts  may  rest  more  heavily  on  one  or  two, 
they  will  all  admit  their  share  of  guilt,  and  on  no  other 
assumption  can  we  hope  for  justice  at  that  judgment.  And 
one  thing  had  been  absolutely  neglected  by  each  and  all, 
although  if  anything  stands  out  as  the  clear  verdict  of  history, 
it  is  that  no  nation  was  ever  killed  by  guns  and  powder,  but 
that  all  who  have  gone  down  have  died  of  injuries  internal. 
Our  statesmen,  some  of  them,  are  telling  us  that  Europe’s 
war  is  America’s  warning;  that  we  must  get  ready  and  that 
our  readiness  must  be  very  much  like  that  of  Europe’s  nations ; 
that  we  must  do  the  very  things  that  they  for  thirty  years 
have  done.  They  tell  us  that  our  chiefest  need  and  our 
most  permanent  defense  and  our  lasting  security  is  a  battle- 


6 


ship,  which  costs  millions  of  dollars  and  takes  years  to  build, 
but  which  can  be  blown  to  the  four  winds  with  a  little  torpedo 
that  can  be  made  in  a  day  or  two  and  costs  a  few  dollars. 
But  I  want  to  approach  it  from  another  viewpoint,  and 
put  the  warning  in  a  different  light.  They  say  that  we 
must  get  more  guns  and  ships  and  shells.  I  want  to  point 
out  a  different  kind  of  armament.  They  are  dealing  with 
one  set  of  forces.  I  will  try  to  deal  with  another.  And 
one  thing  I  admit,  we  must  have  either  theirs  or  mine.  Our 
nation  must  have  forces  either  material  or  moral,  and  the 
only  question  is — which  shall  they  be?  It  is  either  God  or 
mammon,  for  no  nation  can  serve  two  masters. 

The  duty  of  the  hour  for  us  is  to  understand  the  deeper 
meaning  of  the  hour’s  deeds,  to  discover  how  they  may  be 
the  means  of  ultimate  regeneration,  to  seek  how  we  may 
build  the  new  Jerusalem,  the  holy  city,  upon  the  ashes  of  the 
old;  and  most  of  all  to  ask  ourselves  what  should  be  our 
own  state  of  mind  and  condition  of  heart  at  this  moment, 
when  the  world  has  lost  its  way,  and  the  civilization  of 
centuries  seems  to  be  under  the  very  curse  of  God.  Our  first 
duty  is  not  to  condemn  the  world,  but  to  find  out  how  it  may 
come  again  to  life  and  have  it  more  abundantly  than  before. 

For  let  us  forget  it  not,  far  above  this,  another  battle 
is  being  fought,  one  of  whose  armies  may  with  right  and 
truth  appeal  to  God.  Let  us  rise  out  of  this  conflict  into  the 
higher  one,  which  is  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against 
the  spiritual  hosts  of  wickedness  within  the  heavenly  places 
of  our  own  souls,  the  battle  of  eternal  and  ultimate  realities 
and  ideals. 

Our  President’s  call  for  prayer  on  the  fourth  of  last 
October  is  said  to  have  made  the  deepest  moral  impression 
in  Europe  of  anything  that  has  occurred  during  these  past 
weary  months.  Had  he,  however,  contented  himself  with 
upbraiding  the  nations  of  Europe,  or  had  he  reproached  them 
for  their  folly,  it  would  probably  have  had  the  opposite  effect. 
Perhaps  the  moral  power  of  his  utterance  was  in  that  portion 
in  which  he  besought  us  to  humble  ourselves  and  confess  our 


7 


sins,  for  the  great  part  to  be  played  by  the  United  States  of 
America  in  the  near  future  would  be  impossible  were  we  to 
take  a  patronizing  attitude  toward  our  brethren  across  the 
sea,  or  to  express  our  satisfaction  with  ourselves.  It  will, 
therefore,  be  wise  and  well,  instead  of  lamenting  the  national 
misdeeds  of  others,  to  make  this  the  solemn  occasion  when 
we  turn  our  eyes  inward  and  seek  in  an  inviolable  solitude  of 
our  national  personality  to  stand  face  to  face  with  the  divine 
reality,  and  having  judged  our  brothers,  if  we  so  must,  pro¬ 
ceed  then  to  judge  ourselves. 

We  read  the  utterances  of  Europe^s  university  professors, 
and  especially  those  of  representative  religious  leaders,  with 
unspeakable  sadness,  because  they  are  filled  with  bitterness 
and  scorn,  with  reproach  and  contempt  for  those  who  only 
a  few  short  weeks  ago  were  their  brethren  beloved.  It  shocks 
our  moral  sense  and  we  lose,  for  the  moment,  our  faith  in 
human  nature.  But  we  must  not  forget  that  these  brethren 
are  not  expressing  themselves  to  us  at  this  moment.  We  do 
not  see  their  real  hearts.  Their  utterances  must  not  be  taken 
at  anywhere  near  their  face  value.  They  bespeak  little  more 
than  nerves  overwrought  and  minds  illusioned.  And  who 
can  tell;  might  not  we  ourselves  be  like  them  were  our  situa¬ 
tion  such  as  theirs?  The  best  thing  for  us  to  do  is  to  make 
this  primarily  a  day  of  national  introspection. 

The  blame  is  universal.  We  have  all  assented  to  a  so- 
called  balance  of  power,  equipoised  upon  a  sword,  with  bullets 
in  the  scale  for  weights.  We  have  all  agreed  to  secret 
alliances  other  than  for  reason  and  justice.  We  all  share 
the  peril  of  the  sword  because  we  have  taken  the  sword.  The 
differences  are  in  degree  and  not  in  principle  and  kind. 

It  is  becoming  clear  to  us  that  with  the  piling  up  of 
armaments  which  invite  conflict,  and  in  which  we  have  shared 
as  well  as  others,  the  civilized  world  to-day  has  two  alterna¬ 
tives.  It  is  either  all  war  or  no  war  at  all.  The  Atlantic  and 
the  Pacific  have  become  very  narrow,  and  we  are  by  no  means 
immune  from  this  alternative. 


8 


The  conflict  in  Europe  was  no  mere  accident.  The 
ultimate  causes  of  her  woe  are  selfish  ambitions,  material 
competition,  unfair  advantages,  suspicions,  the  doctrine  that 
might  makes  the  only  right,  the  confusion  of  moral  with 
physical  power,  the  ruthless  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest ; 
in  all  which  the  militarists  have  been  ably  supported  by  the 
intellectuals  and  the  aristocrats  of  the  old  world.  It  all  goes 
back  into  history;  its  causes  are  remote  and  ultimate.  It 
arises  out  of  a  false  philosophy  of  human  life,  a  false  con¬ 
ception  of  racial  relationships,  and  a  false  view  of  human 
progress. 

Are  we  free  from  the  danger  of  these  ultimate  causes? 
Is  our  inward  social  order,  which  corresponds  so  largely  to 
that  of  Europe,  as  a  whole  permeated  by  an  elevating 
philosophy  of  human  life?  Have  we  yet  solved,  by  moral 
processes,  the  problem  of  racial  relationships?  Is  our  moral 
progress  altogether  according  to  the  preaching  of  Jesus  and 
the  prophets?  Are  we,  in  our  social  life,  seeking  to  save  life 
by  losing  it?  Are  we  dominated  by  the  higher  law  of  the 
survival  of  the  fittest  for  the  sake  of  the  unfit?  Do  we  throb 
with  the  pulses  of  what  Baroness  von  Suttner  has  so 
beautifully  called  the  international  heart? 

Even  suppose  we  grant  that,  because  of  our  newer  and 
fairer  opportunity,  we  are  approaching  nearer  to  it  than  the 
other  nations;  let  us  not  forget  that  the  nations  of  Europe 
are  suffering,  not  only  because  of  their  immediate  sins,  but 
because  of  their  past  records.  Admit,  even  that  some  one  of 
these  nations  is  primarily  at  fault,  how  about  the  past  con¬ 
quests  of  the  others?  But  let  us  pursue  the  historical  method 
further.  How  about  our  method  of  the  past?  All  human 
progress  must  be  construed  and  interpreted  in  relative  terms, 
and  with  our  larger  opportunity,  our  more  favored  conditions, 
if  we  were  not  infinitely  better  than  the  other  nations  we 
should  be  infinitely  worse. 

The  shadow  at  least  of  a  world  conflict  is  yet  upon  us. 
It  was  only  a  little  far  back  that  we  were  on  the  verge  of  a 
contest  that  might  perhaps  have  become  an  Armageddon. 


9 


Have  we,  as  a  nation,  been  free  from  responsibility  for  the 
exploitation  of  the  poor  people  of  Mexico?  Have  we  cause 
to  wonder  because  they  do  not  trust  us  and  have  little  con¬ 
fidence  in  our  good  intentions?  The  peoples  of  the  Far  East 
have  had  occasion  to  exercise  great  patience  with  us,  and 
they  have  been  very  forbearing.  We  have  sent  others  to 
them  than  our  missionaries.  Our  present  treatment  of  Japan 
is  irritating  to  her  national  sense  of  honor,  and  our  inadequate 
methods  for  the  protection  of  the  aliens  who  are  in  our  midst, 
and  who  have  as  much  right  in  our  midst  as  did  our  own 
fathers,  are  things  to  give  us  pause  and  cause  the  native  hue 
of  a  self-glorying  satisfaction  to  become  sickbed  o’er  with 
the  pale  cast  of  thought. 

Are  the  militarists  of  America,  at  least  relatively  speak¬ 
ing,  very  much  better  than  any  other  militarists?  Ask  our 
President  to  tell  you  of  the  war  lobby  at  his  office  doors  a 
few  short  months  ago  clamoring  for  an  attitude  to  Mexico 
that  might  have  wrought  incalculable  ruin.  And  would  not 
more  than  one  of  them,  in  the  same  environment,  be  readily 
transformed  into  a  Bernhardi,  and  are  not  some  of  our 
intellectuals  little  better  than  a  Treitschke  or  a  Delb  ruck? 

Let  us  turn  our  eyes  inward  and  deal  with  ourselves. 
We  have  the  sad  story  of  that  same  militarism,  only  in  another 
form,  in  Colorado,  whose  violation  of  law  and  order  bears 
sad  resemblance  to  the  breaking  of  international  law  and  order 
across  the  sea  and  which  is  due  to  the  same  inherent  cause. 

We  are  by  no  means  free  from  a  false  and  boasting 
patriotism.  Our  people  have  by  no  means  caught  the  splendid 
spirit  of  Mazzini’s  eighteenth  century  appeal  from  the  “rights 
of  man”  to  the  “duties  of  humanity.”  What  would  our 
people  do  were  the  occasions  great?  God  only  knows. 

But,  above  all,  witness  the  resemblance  of  our  internal 
class  consciousness  and  conceit  and  contrast  it,  if  it  can  be 
really  contrasted,  with  the  setting  over  against  each  other  of 
race  and  nation  across  the  Atlantic.  Does  ours  not  bear  sad 
witness  to  the  philosophy  of  a  Friedrich  Nietzsche? 

Our  hearts  sink  at  the  failure  of  one  great  philosopher 


lO 


and  teacher  of  the  old  world  to  apply  the  splendid  idealism 
which  he  has  set  before  us  on  the  printed  page  and  because 
he  now  tells  us  that  the  relations  between  races  can  only  be 
adjusted  by  conflict  and  subjugation,  which  is  another  way  of 
telling  us  that  his  own  idealism  was  a  foolish  dream.  But 
have  we  not  any  scholars  who  under  the  same  stress  and 
strain  would  go  astray  and  would  readily  limit  their  idealism 
within  national  bounds? 

We  are  amazed  at  the  recklessness  and  the  mad  pre¬ 
sumption  witnessed  in  the  violation  of  neutral  protection,  and 
yet  one  of  our  own  states  is  at  this  moment  in  danger  of 
seeking  the  same  narrow,  false  self-interest  so  that  our 
Federal  government,  as  our  Secretary  of  State  regretfully 
admits,  is  powerless  to  insure  the  inviolability  of  its  own 
sacred  treaties,  and  that  state  and  its  people  say  they  will 
not  wait,  because  the  issue  is  self-preservation. 

Our  saddest  thought  has  been  that  Christians  should  be 
at  war,  and  that  they  should  support  so  false  a  patriotism. 
Is  not  this  animated  by  the  same  individual  experiences  as 
those  of  our  own  Christians  selfishly  living  within  their  own 
class  limits,  expressing  their  own  class  consciousness,  giving 
vent,  if  not  to  class  hatred,  at  least  to  class  contempt  ?  Have 
our  Christians  in  the  United  States  of  America  ever  witnessed 
clearly  Peter's  vision  that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons?  It 
is  sad  indeed  to  witness  in  Europe  race  antagonism  and  race 
contempt  crushing  out  Christian  sympathy  and  love,  but  have 
we  within  our  borders  a  brotherhood  and  sisterhood  which 
constitutes  a  divine  democracy?  I  think  it  was  a  German 
philosopher  who  once  uttered  the  beautiful  thought  that 
religion  was  reverence  for  inferior  beings.  Have  we  attained 
that  height  of  thought  in  our  estimate  of  other  states  and 
races  ? 

We  clearly  recognize  that  no  peace  can  come  to  Europe 
unless  it  be  the  peace  that  comes  from  justice,  but  yet  within 
our  own  land  thousands  upon  thousands  of  our  people  live  in 
a  continuously  armed  truce  and  we  have  here  a  social  and 
industrial  order  still  awaiting  the  peace  of  justice. 


Just  as  the  mills  and  factories  of  Europe  are  turning 
out  weapons  of  hatred  and  destruction,  so  our  mills  are 
manufacturing  hatred  in  human  hearts  and  our  mines  hide 
deep  in  the  earth,  an  injustice  which  is  being  transformed 
into  ill-suppressed  violence.  What  I  am  trying  to  remind 
myself  is  this — that  the  same  malevolent  forces,  the  same 
ultimate  causes,  the  same  specious  philosophies,  the  same 
insane  expedients  are  at  work  with  us  as  those  which  on  a 
larger  scale  are  wrecking  Europe. 

Perhaps  the  chief  of  all  causes  of  every  kind  of  warfare 
is  the  desire  for  mastery,  the  lust  for  domination.  We  have 
that  same  thing  except  that  it  exists  between  classes  instead 
of  between  nations.  Across  the  sea  there  has  been  for  many 
years  a  process  of  unification  of  nations  with  its  intensification 
of  prejudice  which  have  now  set  nation  over  against  nation 
in  deadly  array.  We  have  the  same  phenomenon  between 
classes  in  our  midst,  and  the  bombs  beneath  the  seats  of  our 
judges  are  premonitions  of  a  greater  danger  to  us  than  any 
that  may  await  us  from  without. 

Another  cause  of  the  world  conflict  is  the  rise  of  sub¬ 
merged  peoples,  and  we  have  here  submerged  peoples  by 
thousands  struggling  for  air  and  light  and  freedom  of  oppor¬ 
tunity.  If  you  think  this  is  not  so,  read  a  few  of  the  papers 
and  magazines  published  by  our  organizations  of  labor,  not 
to  mention  some  others,  and  then  read  the  magazines  published 
by  our  industrial  manufacturers. 

We  have  the  sad  spectacle  of  the  nations  of  Europe  call¬ 
ing  upon  their  tribal  gods,  each  nation  trying  to  think  of 
itself  in  relation  to  its  god.  We  are  not  far  from  that  same 
individualistic  class  creation  of  deities.  Great  masses  of  our 
people  are  looking  for  their  uplifting  toward  a  revolution, 
and  it  is  largely  caused  by  the  way  in  which  our  rich  flaunt 
their  riches  in  the  face  of  the  poor  and  emphasize  the  wide 
gulf  between  Dives  at  his  table  and  Lazarus  at  the  gate. 

The  real  prophets  in  Europe  have  been  for  many  years 
warning  the  nations  of  their  mad  materialism.  We  have  the 
same  insidious  foe  of  social  progress  among  us,  and  it  exists 


12 


not  only  in  high  places  but  also  among  the  lowly,  for  to 
worship  the  Mammon  that  other  men  possess  is  no  better  than 
to  worship  that  which  we  possess  ourselves. 

The  conflicting,  or  seemingly  conflicting  interests  over 
there  have  engendered  and  nurtured  these  hatreds.  We  have 
the  same  supposititious  conflict  intensifying  the  same  hatreds. 
Read,  if  you  will,  the  recent  address  of  the  president  of  the 
National  Manufacturers'  Association,  or  the  report  just  from 
the  press  of  the  president  of  the  great  mining  company,  and 
then  read  with  them,  at  the  same  time,  the  record  of  the  same 
events  by  those  who  are  arrayed  in  conflict  against  them. 
Remember  that  these  are  not  isolated  instances,  that  these 
men  are  the  mouthpieces  of  great  classes  and  masses  of  man¬ 
kind  upon  whose  mutual  relations  our  national  life  depends. 

The  over-sea  pronouncements  about  nations  crushing  each 
other  sound  very  much  as  though  they  might  have  been  made 
at  a  dinner  of  a  great  association  of  manufacturers  held 
recently,  or  at  a  gathering  in  some  .dingy  hall  of  their  open 
foes  in  the  world  of  industry. 

We  have  built  up  deliberate  and  powerful  organizations, 
legitimate  when  limited  to  the  purposes  for  which  they 
primarily  exist,  but  in  fact  devoted  to  the  destruction  of  other 
movements  and  bodies  of  men,  equally  to  be  sanctioned  in 
their  original  intent,  upon  a  class  basis,  and  a  class  hatred 
as  clear  cut  as  the  shameful  breach  between  the  striving 
nations;  and  then  as  the  issue  of  this,  other  great  bodies  of 
men  and  women,  so  frantic  in  their  sense  of  despair  that 
they  become  industrial  premillennialists  and  are  agreed  that 
the  whole  social  structure  must  be  destroyed  by  dynamite 
and  arson. 

These  warring  classes  are  as  ignorant  of  each  other  and 
each  other's  inmost  thought  as  any  nations  divided  by  a  great 
wall  of  China. 

It  is  said  that  one  nation  over  there  is  attempting  to 
convey  its  culture  by  force,  but  these  utterances,  whether  or 
not  they  represent  that  nation,  do  not  sound  unlike  some  of 
those  giving  expression  to  our  superimposed  philanthropy 


13 


as  a  substitute  for  human  freedom  and  divine  justice.  It  is 
said  that  one  of  these  nations  proclaims  itself  as  the  divine 
custodian  of  God’s  blessings  for  the  world,  and  this  sounds 
very  much  like  the  familiar  phrases  of  some  of  our  leaders 
of  industry  who  go  farther  than  to  talk  about  what  they 
call  their  own  business  and  talk  about  a  benevolent,  pater¬ 
nalistic  feudalism  which  denies  the  democracy  of  the  Hebrew 
prophet  and  the  Christian  Messiah;  and  I  suppose  if  any  of 
the  preachers  in  Europe  had  interposed  they  would  have  been 
told  to  keep  close  to  their  own  business  of  preaching  the 
Gospel.  Just  as  the  militarists  of  Europe  declare  the  pacifists 
to  be  mild  but  dangerous  fanatics,  so  again  and  again  before 
our  face  our  prophets  of  God’s  new  social  order  are  put  to 
shame. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  same  principalities,  the  same 
powers,  the  same  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world  are 
at  work  in  one  continent  as  in  the  other,  in  one  between  its 
nations,  in  the  other  between  its  classes. 

The  poor  people  of  Europe  have  been  betrayed,  both  by 
their  lords  and  by  their  own  social  leaders  just  as,  under  the 
same  haggard  philosophy,  our  working  men,  misguided  by 
feudal  protectors,  or  by  their  own  false  leaders,  are  often, 
like  Jesus,  crucified  between  two  thieves.  And  I  am  not  sure 
but  what  the  waste  and  want  by  war  is  under  the  same 
specious  philosophy  as  the  waste  of  strike  and  lock-out  which 
are  now  almost  daily  occurrences  with  us.  And  we  have  the 
discouraging  attempt  of  aspiring  but  misguided  creatures, 
seeking  to  destroy  the  social  plague  by  burning  down  their 
own  houses,  because  we  have  not  shown  them  any  better  way 
of  doing. 

It  is  clear  to  men  of  vision  that  the  old  international  order 
of  Europe  is  absolutely  broken  down,  and  that  a  new  order 
must  take  its  place,  but  this  is  no  clearer  than  that  the 
governing  powers  of  our  internal  social  life  have  failed 
and  that  a  new  order  must  surely  be  brought  about  either 
by  the  transforming  power  of  a  great  gospel  or  else  must 
rise  from  out  the  ashes  of  the  old. 


14 


And  the  new  order  must  come,  both  here  and  there,  by 
the  same  great  spiritual  transformation,  the  appeal  of  a  higher 
imaginative  pity,  the  conservation  of  human  heritages,  the 
unwillingness  that  even  one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish 
and  above  all  by  diverting  all  that  is  high  and  holy  in  the 
fighting  spirit  of  man  by  setting  before  the  eyes  of  men  the 
great  moral  equivalents  of  war,  so  that  mankind’s  scarlet 
sins  themselves  may  be  as  white  as  snow  and  their  now 
crimson  conflicts  shall  be  as  white  as  wool,  as  they  shall, 
instead  of  fighting  each  other,  fight  for  each  other,  the  moral 
battles  of  our  humanity  against  disease,  injustice,  inhumanity, 
and  every  subtle  foe  of  our  common  human  progress.  For 
we  have  not  yet  even  tested,  except  in  a  very  timid  way,  what 
this  newer  humanitarianism  may  do  to  bring  forth  heroism, 
courage  and  endurance,  and  the  very  wrath  of  man  may  yet 
be  made  by  God  to  praise  him;  for  even  now,  down  in  their 
hearts,  as  Ruskin  declared,  men  worship  the  soldier,  not 
because  he  goes  forth  to  slay,  but  to  be  slain. 

We  wonder  at  the  powerlessness  of  the  Christian  institu¬ 
tions  of  Europe,  with  the  helpless  Pope  and  the  Protestant 
church  caught  up  in  the  maelstrom  of  a  false  patriotism,  and 
yet  within  these  past  few  months,  in  Colorado  and  in 
Michigan,  in  the  cities  of  Lawrence  and  Paterson,  we  have 
had  witness  of  the  same  helpless  church  and  synagogue.  Just 
as  the  church  in  Europe  is  futile  because  it  is  bound  to  the 
state  which  determines  its  social  institutions,  so  the  church  in 
the  United  States  is  fettered  to  a  false  and  passing  social 
status.  As  the  church  in  Europe  is  divided  by  its  racial 
hatreds,  so  the  church  in  the  United  States  has  as  yet  failed 
to  demonstrate  the  reality  of  any  racial  brotherhood.  As  the 
church  in  Europe  is  divided  among  itself,  so  in  our  own  land, 
with  our  disintegrated  religious  forces,  problems  of  social 
justice  have  been  looking  to  us  with  beseeching  voice,  and 
we  have  found  ourselves  obliged  to  face  them,  or  worse  still, 
to  shun  them  with  shame  upon  our  faces  and  with  a  bewildered 
consciousness,  our  spiritual  authority  not  equal  to  our  human 
sympathy,  because  it  is  so  sadly  divided. 


15 


Remember  that  I  am  given  the  restricted  task  of  pre¬ 
senting  only  one  side  of  the  picture.  Thank  God  there  are 
great  forces  for  social  righteousness;  we  have  the  beginnings 
of  a  great  revival  of  the  church  and  of  religion  in  new  and 
splendid  terms,  and  the  church  will  dare,  so  I  profoundly 
believe,  to  appear  as  a  leader  and  to  express  her  spiritual 
authority  in  our  midst. 

But  let  us  not  fail  to  remember  that  we  are  to  reckon 
with  the  same  demoniac  forces  as  those  which  have  ruined 
Europe.  Let  us  profit  by  the  sad  example  and  learn  as  a 
nation  not  to  ask  God  to  be  on  our  side,  but  to  pray  with 
Lincoln  that  we  may  be  found  upon  the  side  of  God.  Let  us 
not  forget  that  we  as  a  nation  must  purge  ourselves  in  order 
that  we  may  be  ready  to  take  the  great  part  to  which  God 
and  our  age  are  about  to  call  us.  Our  age  and  generation  call 
for  a  solemn,  searching,  fearless  utterance  of  solemn,  search¬ 
ing,  and  fearful  truths. 

The  prophet  is  to  proclaim  the  full  fatherhood  of  God, 
a  God  who  rules  His  household  with  the  unwavering  hand 
of  justice  and  with  a  heart  of  love.  Thus  the  invocation  of 
the  Heavens  for  divine  justice  and  the  cry  of  an  Infinite 
affection  meet  and  mingle  with  every  human  cry  that  rises 
upward  for  human  justice  or  of  human  suffering.  A  true 
father  will  not  let  his  children  hurt  each  other  either  by  malice 
or  neglect,  and  he  does  not  love  the  strong  child  better  than 
he  does  the  weak. 

We  need  a  deeper  and  more  tormenting  sense  of  sin,  a 
profounder  consciousness  of  the  eternal  truth,  that  a  sin, 
whether  of  indifference  or  intent,  against  our  brother  or  our 
sister  is  an  offense  against  an  outraged  and  righteously 
indignant  God,  that  social  morals  and  personal  religion  are 
one  and  inseparable,  now  and  forever,  that  God  is  not  a 
seller  of  indulgences  at  any  price. 

The  third  article  of  our  message  is  the  absolute  certitude 
of  judgment.  Shall  not  God  avenge  those  whose  cries  come 
up  to  Him,  day  and  night?  Yea,  speedily  He  will  avenge 
them. 

i6 


The  final  message  is  redemption,  the  redemption  of  the 
individual  in  the  world,  and  through  Him  of  the  world  itself, 
and  there  is  no  redemption  of  either  without  the  redemption 
of  the  other. 

The  Gospel  is  emasculated,  the  pulpit  is  superfluous,  the 
church  of  the  living  God  goes  out  of  existence,  when  the 
truths  of  the  Gospel,  the  vocabulary  of  the  preacher,  and  the 
constitution  of  the  church  no  longer  contain  the  words  God, 
Sin,  Judgment  and  Redemption,  and  they  are  gigantic  and 
capacious  words,  belonging  to  a  vocabulary  that  can  interpret 
the  whole  universe  of  right  and  wrong,  both  individual  and 
social.  They  are  applicable  to  every  problem  in  God's  world. 
The  greatest  prophet  of  the  Old  Testament,  without  one 
hesitating  utterance  or  deviating  line,  declared  that  the  pro¬ 
tection  and  peace  of  Israel,  in  her  international  relations, 
were  to  be  secured  only  when  within  her  own  borders 
oppression  ceased  and  justice  found  its  way  to  the  abode  of 
her  children,  and  not  until  then  could  the  sword  be  beaten 
into  the  ploughshare. 

Oh,  if  the  nations  of  Europe  had  only  thought  less  about 
their  foes  without  and  more  about  their  foes  within.  We 
blame  them  because  they  are  not  democratic  either  in  form 
or  in  fact,  but  perhaps  there  is  still  greater  danger  to  the 
nation  that  has  the  form  without  the  fact;  that  raises  hopes 
before  its  people  which  it  does  not  enable  them  to  realize, 
and  ideals  before  the  world,  which  it  sadly  fails  to  demonstrate 
within  itself. 

Perhaps  it  is  worse,  if  with  our  confessions  and  our 
creeds  of  national  brotherhood,  denying  class  and  repudiating 
distinctions  of  race  and  color  and  previous  condition,  declaring 
that  there  be  no  potentate  and  no  serf,  disclaiming  rank 
and  title,  we  content  ourselves  with  form  without  the  living 
fact.  Ours  is  as  yet  a  bewildered  and  confused  democracy. 

The  nations  are  still  suspicious  of  us.  Japan  has  an 
attitude  of  watchful  waiting  as  to  whether  or  not  we  are  a 
just  people.  China  has  her  alternate  hope  and  doubt,  and  is 
mercurial  in  her  temper  toward  us.  The  little  nations  to  the 


17 


south  are  not  quite  sure  of  us,  and  the  most  hopeful  sign  of 
this  day  and  generation  was  that  three  of  them  did  try  us 
once  and  did  not  find  us  wanting. 

We  need  to  arm  ourselves  against  them  ;  yes,  but  we 
shall  do  it  best  by  disarming  them  of  their  doubts  and  their 
lingering  suspicions.  Confidence,  as  every  man  of  business 
will  tell  us  in  the  relations  of  our  trade  and  commerce,  is  the 
only  ultimate  security  of  the  relations  between  nations.  The 
unselfish  return  of  China’s  indemnity  was  worth  at  least  one 
battleship  to  this  nation. 

Justice  is  our  noblest  armor,  but  our  only  pledge  for  the 
nations  of  our  justice  to  them  is  that  of  our  internal  justice 
between  our  own  peoples. 

The  new  patriotism  will  begin  to  transform  the  world 
when  one  nation  makes  her  own  people  see  that  to  love  one 
people  truly  is  to  love  all  peoples,  and  that  the  loss  of  a 
nation’s  honor  is  infinitely  worse  than  the  loss  of  land,  and 
that  her  service  to  other  nations  is  the  measure  of  her 
greatness. 

Mexico  is  really  waiting  to  see  if  we  shall  disclaim  and 
repudiate,  and  perhaps  bring  her  exploiters  to  the  mind  of 
Zaccheus,  and  whether  we  shall  send  into  her  midst  the 
messengers  of  light.  And  now  the  eyes  of  the  whole  world 
are  on  us.  It  does  not  yet  know  whether  our  democracy  is 
real  or  specious,  and  whether  the  whited  sepulchres  without 
are  inwardly  filled  with  dead  men’s  bones.  The  eyes  of  God 
are  on  us.  At  this  moment  the  vineyard  is  in  our  possession 
and  it  is  ours  to  say  whether  or  not,  in  us,  the  parable  shall 
be  fulfilled.  But  if  our  own  house  only  can  be  set  in  order, 
we  shall,  under  the  hand  of  God,  become  the  world’s  messiah. 
By  self-discipline  alone  is  moral  domination  won  and  the 
surest  way  to  protect  ourselves  without  is  to  purify  ourselves 
within.  And  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  had  a  word  for  the 
saving  remnant,  the  Servant  of  Jehovah,  who  were  to  save 
Israel  and  through  whom  Israel  was  to  save  the  world,  and 
it  was  a  word  which  implied  humility  and  meekness. 

The  world  has  not  yet  fully  tested  the  power  of  emula- 

i8 


tion,  and  when  it  has,  it  has  been  the  emulation  of  armaments 
and  battleships,  the  creative  powers  of  death  rather  than  of 
life.  It  has  been  tried  a  little.  Japan  has  shown  at  least  the 
possibilities  of  the  response  of  a  nation  to  examples  of  moral 
as  well  as  economic  progress. 

And  now,  when  all  else  has  broken  down  and  the  dark¬ 
ness  about  them  is  so  dense  that  the  light  cannot  be  mistaken, 
let  the  nations  see  in  us  a  national  greatness  that  rests  on  the 
power  of  our  ideals,  whose  domination  is  that  of  moral  power, 
which  can  weld  together  divergent  powers  and  peoples  in  her 
midst  by  mutual  interest  and  affection,  whose  people  have 
equal  rights  and  justice  because  the  strong  help  the  weak, 
whose  patriotism  is  that  of  duty  and  service  rather  than  of 
rights  and  privilege,  a  nation  that  will  rather  suffer  wrong 
than  do  a  wrong,  and  they  will  see  the  power  of  moral  con¬ 
quest,  then  shall  they  see  that  they  have  '‘spent  their  strength 
for  nought  and  vanity,^’  that  they  have  been  “sold  for  nought,^' 
but  may  be  “redeemed  without  money.’’ 

Thus  shall  the  Lord  “make  bare  his  holy  arm  in  the  eyes 
of  all  the  nations  and  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  see  the 
salvation  of  our  God.”  Thus  shall  we  enlarge,  stretching 
forth  the  curtains  of  our  habitations,  lengthen  our  cords  and 
strengthen  our  stakes,  spread  abroad  on  the  right  hand  and 
on  the  left,  our  seed  shall  possess  the  nations  and  make  the 
desolate  cities  to  be  inhabited.  The  nations  shall  come  to 
our  light  and  kings  to  the  brightness  of  our  rising. 

During  these  latter  days  I  have  been  accused  of  holding 
a  flimsy  faltering  patriotism  and  have  received  some  letters 
full  of  satire  and  of  scorn.  But  is  it  so,  is  the  patriot  who 
wants  to  love  his  country  because  she  is  the  protector  of  the 
weak  as  well  as  the  possessor  of  her  own  strength,  a  home  for 
the  oppressed,  guardian  of  the  others’  liberties,  as  well  as 
the  protector  of  her  own,  is  he  a  weakling  or  a  traitor? 

And  so 

“The  tumult  and  the  shouting  dies. 

The  captains  and  the  kings  depart; 

Still  stands  thine  ancient  sacrifice; 

An  humble  and  a  contrite  heart.” 


19 


But 


"If  drunk  with  sight  of  power,  we  loose 
Wild  tongues  that  have  not  Thee  in  awe; 

Such  boasting  as  the  Gentiles  use, 

Or  lesser  breeds  without  the  Law; 

Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet. 

Lest  we  forget — ^lest  we  forget.” 

Thus  may  we  fulfill  the  prophecy  of  the  Quaker  poet : 

"Thy  great  world-lesson  all  shall  learn, 

The  nations  in  thy  school  shall  sit. 

Earth’s  farthest  mountain  tops  shall  burn 
With  watch-fires  from  thy  own  uplit.” 

Dear  friends,  let  us  think  well  of  all  our  misguided 
brethren  over  the  sea,  led  as  lambs  to  the  slaughter,  for  even 
though  we  may  deem  them  stricken;  smitten  and  afflicted  of 
God,  let  us  not  forget — that  they  bear  our  griefs  and  carry 
our  sorrows,  that  they  are  wounded  for  our  transgressions, 
are  bruised  for  our  iniquities;  the  chastisement  of  our  peace 
is  upon  them ;  and  that  by  their  stripes  we  may  be  healed. 


The  Church  Peace  Union 

{Founded  by  Andrew  Carnegie) 

TRUSTEES 

Rev.  Peter  Ainslie,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Rev.  Arthur  Judson  Brown,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Boston,  Mass. 
President  W.  H.  P.  Faunce,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Providence,  R.  I. 
His  Eminence,  James  Cardinal  Gibbons,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Rt.  Rev.  David  H.  Greer,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Frank  O.  Hall,  D.D.,  New  York 

Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  D.D.,  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Rabbi  Emil  G.  Hirsch,  LL.D.,  Chicago,  Ill. 

Hamilton  Holt. 

Professor  William  I.  Hull,  Ph.D.,  Swarthmore,  Pa. 

Rev.  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  LL.D.,  Chicago,  Ill. 

Rt.  Rev.  William  Lawrence,  D.D.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Rev.  Frederick  Lynch,  D.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland,  Ph.D.,  New  York 
Marcus  M.  Marks,  New  York 

Dean  Shailer  Mathews,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Chicago,  Ill. 

Edwin  D.  Mead,  M.A.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Rev.  William  Pierson  Merrill,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 
John  R.  Mott,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

George  A.  Plimpton,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Julius  B.  Remensnyder,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 
Judge  Henry  Wade  Rogers,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Robert  E.  Speer,  D.D.,  New  York. 

Francis  Lynde  Stetson,  New  York. 

James  J.  Walsh,  M.D.,  New  York. 

Bishop  Luther  B.  Wilson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 


